I had a few days off training after the marathon then got back to it on Thursday. A 1k swim, followed by 30 minutes rowing, straight into an hour on the treadmill (7.3 miles). That is made really tough because you are already sweating from the rowing, then you have to run, in a barely cool gym, with no fan. Great heat conditioning, I suppose. But awful.
The next day I just did an hour on the bike trainer, the day after I did an easy paced 8 mile run. Yesterday I did an hour on the bike then straight out for an 8 mile run. I was just trying to train my legs to the misery of running off the bike, but after a 3 miles aiming at sub 8.30 I was feeling fine so I upped the pace to 7.40s to bring it home under sub 8 average pace. I was surprised and happy with that.
Last night I was thinking I need to do some long rides to get myself bike fit for the half tri and work towards LEJOG. I tried the Garmin feature where you ask for a distance and it plots you a safe bike course. It lead me along Cromwell Ave (busy main road) and over the motorway roundabout (a Highways Agency declared accident blackspot). That’s a no.
How can I train and not get splattered? The cycle route stuff is good for LEJOG but it’s slow and mostly flat, not much use for training for speed. I went online and found ICTrainer, a cycling app. It’s a month free trial, then dirt cheap (£2.08 per month!) after that. Apparently it has tons of video of real world cycling routes, but most importantly, it allows you to upload gpx files.
I got it this morning, uploaded the gpx of the cycle leg of the actual (half) triathlon I’m doing and gave it a go. The course is three 18.3 mile laps. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I was appreciating the system by the second lap. The gpx tells the app the route you are taking and the elevation, the app then increases the resistance of you trainer to realistically simulate the hills. By the second lap I realised that it tells you shortly before each change of incline what the next one is going to be. So you are on the flat (there doesn’t seem to be hardly any 0 elevation ‘flat’, it’s all at least some incline) then on to a hill so it goes to 1%, then, say 3%, over the crest and -1.5%. Once I learned to watch the prediction boxes I barely looked at anything else. It has bloody tough sections, even in first gear I was stood on the pedal on an 8% incline, grinding out 240 watts. The first lap was a hell of a shock to the system. The second was bad, but I was getting the hang of it and knew what to expect. I managed to do the third lap to do the full race distance, but I felt near to quitting the whole way through. That 8% is seriously not funny the third time around.
I got it done, and didn’t actually lose that much time on the third lap, though it felt like I was dying.
That was reverse order.
The thing is, there is no rest on a trainer. You can’t get into an aero tuck and freewheel on the descents to rest your legs. So, the good news is that killer 55 miles ride should be a lot easier on the day.
Also that was the first ride where I’ve been going up and down the gears to keep in a power range. A pitiful 150 – 160 watts, but hopefully that will improve. My point is, usually I just grind it out, and try to stick to 90rpm. This time I had a power target, at 90rpm, and that kept me faster. I have power meter pedals, if that strategy translates to the real world (it should) I could really improve my time. Just tracked down my full distance time, 7 hours 1 minute. Hmmm. Which leads me on to the other main triumph of today. I was losing aero position on the third lap because I was sitting up because I was so tired, but my arse wasn’t agony and my feet weren’t a world of pain. Considering I just doubled my longest time on the trainer that is a fantastic result. If I’m not in agony, over half of the battle is won.
I’ll have to do a long ride every week. It’s not fun, but it’s great training.
Buck.